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11.Our Bodies,Myself:Uchida Shungiku's sex For Girls
Seaman, Amanda
<育児>を契機とするクロスオーバー
2008-03-20
http://hdl.handle.net/10083/34424
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This document is downloaded at: 2016-10-25T00:55:44Z
理論編
いま 、 〈育 児〉 を F・5う
特別寄稿論文
Our Bodles,Myself
Uchida Shungiku's sex For Girls
Amanda Seaman
Assistant Professor of」 apanesc Language and Literature,
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures,
Univcrsity of Massachusetts Amherst
Uchida Shungiku is onё of 」apan's most prolific, as well as
provocative,female writers and perfOrlners.Her 1993 fictionalized
autobiography,Fazα α Faた たαα,which was nOn■ inated for the Naoki Prize,
dre￢「 upon her own experience Of sexual abuse at thc hands Of her
stepfather,and Offered a stinging indictinent of her inother's failure to
protect hero Since then,Uchida has ettOyed a busy and varied literary
career,authOring numerous,η αngα ,essays,and fictional works,whilc at
the same tirne expanding her repertoire tO include appearances as a
singer, actOr, and television personality. In 2007 alone, she was
responsible for a number of graphic nOvels,“ how― tO"books on knitting,
sewing, and cooking, and a collection of essays about her children
iた 夕Sん ι :競 α
suo Overthё decades,hOwever,Uchida has continucd
(Xフ ο
`θ
to nurture her public persona as a transgressive woman, taking the
traditional ferninine roles of daughter,wife and inother and turning them
on their head,l This image is epitOrnizcd by her Ongoingれ αttgα scrics
Mα ι
αsれ αcん i ″α れα■sれ οたu shi`θ :7u (or И化こ れαれ for short)lWe are
reprodЧ cing],WhiCh Chronicles her pregnancieS `α
as well as the births and
childhoods of her four children,an the while frankly acknowledging― and
even celebrating― thc many relationships(Inarital and extramarital)
which produced thern.
In 2007,Uchida published S4Cト ーSeχ ル r Girls_」 oseiれοι
αmeれ οsci
jι
れο οれαれαsた ち a Self― described
guide tO sex and reproductiOn fOr
pre― pubescent
womcn.2 written in episOdic, fOur― frame mα ngα forrn,
the manualis narrated by Uchida's alter― ego Gigi,thc protagonist of thc
1 0n Uchidaも ``transgressive''public persOna,see Setsu Shigematsu,
Ferninism
and
Media in the Late Twentieth Cenmry:Rcading the Limits of a Politics of
“
Transgression,"in G3れ dcだ んgM,dem」 は,α れ C Lierattrc,(ed.)Barbara Mo10ney and
Kathleen Uno(Calnb五 dge,MA:HaA7ard Un市“ersity Press,2005),573.
2 uchida Shungiku,S4Cト ーSaル r(■ rls_Onna mたο nO`α me■o sc」 nο
ο′
ね ■asa lTOkyO:Asuka Shinsha,2007).Au references passJttwill be given parenthetically
h hetext.
52
特別寄稿 論文
Our Bodics,1/1yself
И化し れαれ scries,with Gigi's children serving as fictiOnal intcrlocutors.
On `α
the surface, the book scems to be the kind of transgressivc,
taboo― breaking challenge to social norms for which Uchida has become
famous:the title is a takeoff on an eroticァ ηαれgα (Seχ ノbr ιαdies),While
the cover art features Gigi,in fuschia silouette,kissing a chcrry,against
a pale bluc background in which intaglio― relief images of sperm swiin
towards her face. This titillating and sexualized wrapping,ho、 vever,has
littic to do 、
vith what lies inside一namely, a surprisingly prosaic
synthcsis, organized in looscly thematic fashion, of information on
female sexual biology,the experience of pregnancy,and Uchida's own life
history:
S4G,then,is not the scx lnanual thatits cover seems to advertise.
Indeed,despite her use of the katakana loan― word scた たusu in the title,
Uchida prOvides no descriptions of sexual intercourse;hcr exhaustive
discussion of thc fertilization of the egg, for instance, never mcntions
how the sperlln who swirn gaily up the uterus into the fallopian tubes
actually get there, “Scx"here,rather,seems to be a refercnce to bi010gy,
``female― ness'',rather than the procreative act. In this respect,SZrC is in
keeping with the stringcnt regulations on prilnary school sex education
(nOrlnally offcrcd to 」apanesc third and fourth oraders)whiCh Were
adopted by the Tokyo Board Of Education in 2004. These regulations,
issued in response to parental complaints about the inclusion Of what
somc considered to be “graphic" ilnagery and accounts of sexual
intercoursc,ban any discussion of the sexual act itself,and discourage
the use of clinicalterrns such as``penis"and“ vagina''for the reproductive
organs(recOmrncnding instcad their“ baby― talk"countcrparts cttiれ ―chin
and mα れ―れαれ).3
1n broader terrns,however,S4G represents a vicw of sex and sex
education diametrically opposcd to thc approach advocated by the Board
of Education, In the latter,fertilization and pregnancy are treated as
biological processes 、ア
ith no apparent causc, leaving students
uninformed about the nature and consequences of sex at the same tirne
as teenage sexual activity and pregnancy arc on the rise.4 uchida's
manual,in contrast,is a lnanifesto about the need for hё nest,accurate,
and straightforward education about the fcmale body and its
reproductive functions, one prompted and narratively anchored by
Uchida's rccollections about her own childhood in 1960s Nagasaki and
3 shigeko Segawa“ InfO・
Shれ 加 孔 l Januav 2005(o■ -line
j
・ 1■ ation Overload:To Tcach or Nott6 Teach,"Asα た
edition):
V,aSahi.com/english/1ifesue/TKY200501150158,htn. Accessed 22」 anuary 2008.
W￢ヽ
4乃 」グ.,which cites sun7c_vs indicating that near13/half of all high school g『 ls in
」apan have been sexually acti17‐ c by the age of seventeen.
理論編
いま、 〈育児 〉 を F・5う
the faulty views which she was a110wed tO form of her Own bOdy and
scxuality. Along the w等 ,Uchida also atternpts to dcbunk some Of the
stercotypes about、 vomen and womcn's bodics perpetuated by lnen。
This pedagogical agenda distinguishes Sイ G from Uchida's carlier
Oθ ttυ rθ ,particularly her writings on pregnancy and lnotherhood. In the
past,Uchida has insisted that her writings are nOt rnё ant to offer advice
on raising children。 5 1nStead, as the jacket descriptiOn to her b00k
И化こ sた j`α chi″ αttα れsた οたusた j`θ :晟 yし IJο ″puts it,they describe hcr own
`α
eXperience,
and rip away the veil from what she feels are thc secrets
about pregnancy and childbirth that no one tells women until they
themselves become pregnanto
Many readers have been drawn to
Uchida's irreverent perspective,one that diffcrs radically from the calln,
authoritative, and often blandly cheerful approach adOpted by the
pregnancy rnanuals which crowd b00kstOre shelves. Speaking through
her alter― ego,Gigi,allows
her to offer her Own vicws on childrearing in a
markedly un― didaё tic way,and her children,、 vhose identities she has
taken great care to protect by giving them numbers,serve a foils for her
riffs and conlic interludes. In many ways,then,Uchida's7η αngα offer a
kind of risquё ,episodically― structured“ situation comedy"approach tO
the plight of rnothcrhood, focused upon discrete stories rather than
character development.
In S4G,however,Uchida has a specific lessOn that she wants to
teach―a lesson,moreover,intiinately bound up、 rith hcr own life story.
This autobiographical element is by no mcans unique;Uchida's artistic
endeavors, from her mα ngα to her modeling、 vork, have always been
emphatically self― re■ exivc in character and content, This re■ exivity,
however, has tended to be cmployed in the servicc of Uchida's larger
prdeCt Of transgressive perforrnance and titillation,focusing upon her
own sexual history in order to shock and also amusc her readers. In
S4G,ho、 vever,Uchida's past becomes a teaching resource,a collectiOn of
lessons iearned一 a factis emphasized by the book's narrative structure,
in、vhich uchida's protagonist and alter― ego,Gigi,speaks to a younger,
less experienced person, usually a woman (althOugh sometimes her
oldest son is the interlocutor).
While found throughout S4G, this silnultaneOusly didactic and
dialogic approach is exemplified by the book's discussion of ectopic
pregnancy. The autobiographical evcnt which Uchida uses to frame her
narrative hcre is a farniliar onc to hcr rcadcrs,dcscribed at lcngth in thc
“pink''volume
of her Wα
れαれ
series: uchida/Gigi developeo a tubal
`α
5 uchida Shungiku,Itttas層 た c万 ″α 加 間 加 加 sれ た ゴ
燿 ocι JO切 lTOkyo:
Kadokawa bunkO,1994),50.
特別 寄稿論文
Our Bodies,Myself
pregnancy,the complications from which required emergency surgery.6
Here, however, the story serves distinctly pedagogical ends: the
emphasis is not upon the pain of the event, or its effect upon Gigi's
psyche,but upon the fact that it was caused by a chlamydia infection
contracted after being raped in an clevator(a faCt Which Gigi has not
divulged in past iterations of this story). As Gigi goes on to explain,thc
statistical likelihood of tubal pregnancies(arOund 100/0)becOmes far
higher in women suffering from pelvic inflanllnatory diseas,. UChida's
life story,ln other words,has becn reframed in thc guisc of edifying
cxample, rather than explicit exposё . This agenda is furthered by
Uchida's recasting of the narrative context:rather than being addressed
directly and graphically to the reader's gaze,Gigi's talc now is told by Gigi
herself to an interlocutor within the representative frame.
Unlike
elsewhere in S4G,Gigi's discussion here takes place with another young
woman rather than daughters,whom Uchida clearly fecls would not be
an appropriate audience for this troubling tale.7 Neverthelcss, the
author's juxtaposition of youth and lnaturity,innocence and cxpericnce
cmphasizes here (aS elsewhere) the fundamental ilnportance of
intergenerational comrnunication within Uchida's overall pr● eCt.
S4G,however,is morc than just a guidc for girls or a confessional
advice manual. It also is a re■ ection upon motherhood一 ―its
responsibilities,its potentials,as well as its pitfalls, While the episodic
arrangemcnt of S4G seems at first glace to be haphazard, abruptly
leading the reader from practical discussions of ovulation,fertilization
and menstruation to autobiographical exposё (including the story of
Uchida's childhood abusc),UChida's storytelling is organizcd around a
central theme一 namely, thc critical role 恥″
hich mothers play in the
education and upbringing of their daughtcrs. Announcing her age(48)
at the outset of the book, Gigi highlights the gap in life experiencc
bet、veen
herself and her third― grade daughter,marking their relationship
in quite traditional terlns as that between elder and novice,teacher and
student. At the heart Ofthis pedagogical dynanlic,Uchida lnakes clear,
should be thc female body:a rnothё r rnust teach her daughters how their
bodies work,and givc thcm a positive body image,in order for then■ to
realizc their full emotional and sexual potential as、 ア
omcn.
This lesson is driven home with stories taken from Uchida's own
life,which demonstratc how her lack of bodily knowlcdgc and outdatcd
vomen oughtto behave damaged hcr emotional and sexual
sense of ho、 ア、
6 uchida Shungiku,И りね s夕 血 2c層 ″α 勉 面s,btt sん θ」
″ ′れ晟バ phkl,lTOkyo:
Kadokawa bunko,1996),249-288.
“
7 A scnsibihty hdicated by her marginal comment on page 71:`This character
looks like a child,but she can ask good adult qucstions."
55
理論編
いま、 く育児 〉 を Fo5う
development.As Gigi/UChida was growing up in Nagasaki,she received
contradictory rrlessages ab6ut a woman's sexuality from her mothcr,
whose traditional(or perhaps old― fashiOned)nOtiOns about female
behavior stood in seenling contradiction to her work within the Flizレ
shο bα i as a bar hostess. From the tilne she was a little girl,Gigi talked
about sex in an open and candid way― a habit likely learned from her
mother,、 ア
ork,''but
ho``used to tell me funny erotic stories from her、 ア
whose cramped sense of social propriety led her to treat sett as something
、′
hich was best lcft undiscussed,and恥 ′
ho went so far as to punish Gigi
for showing guests her parent's bed(she waS prOud of the coverlet that
her inother had knitted)(88).As Gigi recalls,“ ]Ⅵ y rnother said things
like`I am a good mother,but this daughter of llnine is a problcrn child
who makes lewd lecCれ ]remarks"(89),critiCisms which thё young girl
found contradictory and confusing.
Another example of such inixed messages occurred when Gigi was
a third grader,sitting sprawled outin the surnlner heat on the veranda of
her row apartrnent and proudly wearing a Short set that her mother had
made for her. Upon secing hcr,her inother screcched,“ What are you
doing? What would happen if a pervert came along?" Gigi's sensible
reply一 “I'm wearing shorts"― ―is rebuffcd by her rnother, who frets, “It
doesn't matter that you're not wearing a skirt― ―they can still,ce your
underpants"(93)。 Such anxiety― and shame― ridden attitudes towards
the fcmale body female sexuality only became rnorc acute as Gigi entered
puberty;when she first had her period,her inother silnply showed hcr
where the sanitary napkins were kept without any further explanation,
while her teachers discussed menstruation in only vaguc and
embarrassed terms: ``I was told that thc rnenstrual blood was thcrc to
nourish the baby . . . There was no mention of eggs, sperm or
As a result,shё wり「ly notes,``I had the unpleasant
irnage Of a b10od― drinking baby in iny head''throughout her adolescence,
despite the sex education that she subsequently received in school(20).
fertilization"(19)。
It is this kind of inisleading“ education"which leads Uchida to
discuss the fertilization of the egg and its implantation in the uterus in
suё h detail clsc、 ア
hcre in S4G. A/1ore generally,Uchida'st、 ′
o brief forays
into the topic of sexualinteFCOurSe clcarly are ineant to demonstrate not
only the essentiallink betwcen scx attd procreation,but also the need to
treat sex as a matter not for shame and silcnce, but as a topic to be
acknowiedged by mothers Ⅵア
ith their children. In the first of these
episodes, sex is depicted as the point of origin for the process of
fertilization,as Gigi narratё s the aaculate's progress through the vagina
and eventually into contact with thc cgg. In thc second,Gigi reflccts on
a story that she read in a mα れgα about a twenty― year― old man who
特別寄稿論文
Our Bodies,Myself
walked in on his parents making lole. The son's lnother,we are told,got
up and ran away,and the next day t01d her son,``I didn't want to,but
your father forced me la夕 れυα司 "(84)。 Gigi wonders,“ if she was being
forced,then why was she on top?"(85)
Thinking about What would happen if her own son(at age twcnty)
walked on in her and her partner,she cOncludes that his first reaction
would be one of apology rather than shock,and that neither she nor her
partner would bc overly perturbed by the intCrruption, Nevertheless,
when she realizcs that she alwaり s keeps the door to her room open
except during lovemaking, she makes sure to warn her children
accordingly: ``When thc door is closed, it's because we'rc making love
lrα bu― rabul, so dOn't Open it suddenly"(87). In reply to her younger
sister's question,``is lnaking love a bad thing?"Uchida's oldest daughter
replies,``No! Ifthey don't do it,then they can't have a baby。 '' As Uchida
remarks in the margins, “these two want anOther brother or sister,"
highlighting not only the procreative function of sex,but also its proper
rolc as a topic of honest and gentle discussion between mother and
daughter.
The failure to embrace this kind of honesty by her own fanlily,and
the silence and shame with which the adult world treatcd her inaturing
body,is associated by Uchida with a far inore sinister outcome「 ―namely,
her abusc atthe hands of her o、 ア
n stepfather,``the biggest pervert of all"
(93).
ThiS traumatic Pcriod, previously chroniclcd in Uchida's
controversial novella Fα ther Fフ cた θr(Fazα α Fα たたαα),8 is sun■ rnarized
again in S4G,this tiine in a way that emphasizes the barely pubescent
Gigi's innocence and lack of knowiedge. Fondled by her stepfathcr and
told that he would“ snatch your virginity and make you rny wife"(94),
Gigi has to look up the lneaning of``virginity"in the dictionary. We are
ア
not shown the horrific abusc dcscribed in Uchida's novella;instead,、 、
e
are confronted with a faceless lnale figure and the language with which
hc donlinates his stepdaughter, until the beaten face of young Gigi
appcars in the next― to― last frame.
While Gigi's tale of abuse is horrific,its rolc here is not siinply to
shock,but to serve Uchida's larger goal of dcmonstrating thc critical role
of mothers in educating,and thus protecting,their daughters when they
are young.The story's emotional climax in S4G,therefore,occurs arter
its actual narration.As hcr oldcst son weeps at his lnother's trcatinent,
8 The barest dctails should suFlce, After Shizuko,the Uchida rlgure in Fttα
α
Fα たたαら becomes pregnant and has a late tel■ ■
■abortion,her stepfa■ er attempts to sew
her vtta shut so that she will never get pregnant again. While prepanng to do this,he
decides to rape herinstead,and then continues to rape and beat her until she runs away.
For more sce,Uchida Shungiku,Fazα α Faたたαα (TokyO:Bunshun bunko,1996).
理論編
い ま、 〈育児〉 を間 う
Gigi explains that there is a greater lesson tO be learned一 namely,the
pernicious effects of“ the kind of thinking that says that`the woman
asked for it'in cases of rape"(96). Her OWn inother said thc same kind
of thing to her,and rnade her feellike she was responsible for the abuse
she received. Thesc attitudes,rnoreover,were not silnply a rnatter of her
mother's lnisplaced loyalty to her husbando When Gigi was groped by a
man in a local record store,she felt powerless to dO anything aboutit,for
despite her shame and anger at the attack she realized that her inother
and younger sister would hold her responsible for it.The adult Gigi,
looking back at her younger selfin the previous frame,concludes that“ I
wasn't bad一 ―I was pitiable," before grabbing her own tlⅣ o daughters
tightly and declaring,“ I、 ア
on't let you feel that way!''(99)
Uchida's portrayal of her rnother in this affair as a black Outline,
spewing abusc outside of the traditional discursive space of the
word― ba1loon,is a clear iconographic ana10guc to the way in恥
ア
hich she
depicts her stepfather carlier;as such,it further emphasizes in negative
terrns the ilnportance of mothers for their daughters' healthy
development. Without an engaged, infOrrned, and infornling mother,
girls like Uchida/Gigi are rendered susceptible to lnen who want to take
advantage ofthen■ or to lnake them feel worthless. Such rnistrcatrnent,
Uchida points out,does not have to take the extreme form that Gigi's first
rapc does;instead,it can sten■ fr61n sOmething as silnple as insulting
colninents on their physical appearance by fathers,boyfriends,and cvcn
husbands,or disinterestin their physiology beyond the basics needed for
sexual gratification. Gigi's first husband,Ⅵ Zhom she inarried at t、renサ
serves as a signal example of this phenomenon,insisting that she buy
largertampons on account of his o、 ア
n innated sense of his penis size(61),
and ignorantly asking why she is taking her basal temperature orally,
rather than vaginally(67)。 A silnilar if less dire rnessage,however,also
seems to underlic the reaction of Gigi's young son to the sight of herlabia,
,
when he rnistakcnly assumes that she's defecating on thc bath stool
(10-11).As often happens in Uchida's works,this vignette is a1lowed to
pass withOut explicit corninentary;nevertheless,her response to herself
upon hcaring her son(“ Am l really that dark?")suggests not only the
differences bet、 veen lnother― daughter and inother― son interactions,but
the potentially disruptive effect which the inale gaze and lnale words can
have upon women's sclf― esteem and self― ilnage.
Gigi's uncornfortable exchange 、ア
ith hcr sOn highlights the
irnpOrtance of the」 apanese bath(ゝ卜 rο )within S4G. The bath long has
ア
becn a symbolically― charged locus、 、
ithin」 apanese culturc,、 ′
here thc
cleansing ofthe body is associated、 ′
ith a cleansing ofthe、ア
hole person.
Gigi's reflections upё n her own childhood, however, and the r01e of
特別 寄稿論文
Our Bodies,Myself
bathing within it, reveal a dark side to the O/urο , in which the
relationship betwcen pollution and puriication is a highly gendered one.
The bath at Gigi's Nagasaki home,located behind the apartinent complex,
is depicted as a place fundamcntally at odds with the'alues traditionally
associated with the qれ ι
rO― cleanliness,coziness,and privacy. Shiclded
frorn the elements only by tarps and umbrellas,the bath is chilled by
rainwater, visited by the neighborhood's strtt cats, and suttect tO
constant invasion by enormous flying cockroaches(43);moreOVer,it is a
place inextricably linkcd with Gigi's own abusive past, since the bath
enclosure was one of her stepfather's favorite places to ilnprison her
when she had``n■ lsbehaved".
As Gigi's subscquent narrative reveals,howcver,thc significance
of``filth"(υ οgο re)is far mOre complex.As we discover,the condition of
the bath,while less than ideal,was not a huge burden forthe young Gigi,
、ア
ho sirnply accepted it as a fact oflifc. This changed when she began to
menstruate,and was told by her parents to keep away from theり しro.
At first, she assumed that they were concerned about her rnenstrual
blood dirtving the bath water. As she soon realized,however,this was
not the issuc;instead,it ttras an extension of the traditional」 apanё se
practicc in which the rnan ofthc housc is allowed tO bathe before any of
the women.As Gigi angrily tells her partner,“ My stepfather used to say,
`it's filthy after women get in the bath,'and sO he got to getin the bath
ア
first.. .The fact is,he lⅣ asn't concerned that`my bath water、、
ill get
dirty'because a menstruating woman gotin it...hc thought that when
women getin the bath,the bath itsθ ゲgets dirty...What kind of parents
Ⅵ′
ould say something like this to their daughter?"(46)
Gigi's anger, in other words, is not sirnply a reaction to the
rnisguided notion that menstruating women should avoid the(プ シrO― She
understands ho、 v onc nlight worry about the necd to drain dirty bath
water and then refill and reheat the tub. Rather, she is particularly
upset by the traditional inessage that women themselves are inherently
dirty,and therefore need to bathe after inen SO that they do not p。 1lute
thein一 a rnessage which she was taught frorn her Carliest dayS nOt simply
by lnen,but by her rnother aS well. As she realizes,this association of
women's bodies, and in particular their sexually active bodies, 、ア
ith
filth''and pollutibn is not only part of a larger cOmplex of beliefs and
“
attitudes which render women inferior to rnen,but also a potent source
of negative attitudes about female sexuality。
In order to combat these destructive associations, Uchida
reclailns the bath itself as a site friendly to、 「ohen, thcir bodies, and
thcir sexualiけ . She directly refutes the conncction bct、 vecn
menstruation and pollution by depicting Gigi in the bath during her
理論編
いま、〈
育児〉を間う
period,silnply using tampons to kecp the water clean(in one amusing
scene,her daughter notices the string and pulls on it)。 When Gigi was
young, peoplc had treated tampons as a sign of decadencc and
immorality,describing the women who used them asれ αsッρρα(a WOrd,as
Gigi discovers in the dictionary,that denotes“ words or attitudcs which
are fr市 olous or low― class,as well as wornen of this sort"(63)).It iS
significant,therefore,that Gigi's discussions with her daughters about
tampons as well as the“ DivaCup"(a small silicon cup that catches
menstrual ユow)take placc in the bath, silnultaneousl, rcfuting hcr
mother's lnisguided attitudes as well as the spatial taboos which went
along with them。
In a siinilar fashion,the bath is the setting for Gigi's lnost intilnate
discussions with her daughters about the felnale sexual anatomy. TO be
sure,this assOciatiOn is a fanliliar one in Uchida's work;as one ofthe few
places、 ァ
ithin the」 apanese home in which nakedness is customary as
∼
well as comfortable, the bath is often used as a site for the frank
depiction and discussion ёf the female body,while Uchida's Иたこ
tα れαれ
serics,with its frequcnt images of Gigi nursing her babies in the warm
confines of her b,thtub, cicarly foreshadow the bath's connection to
motherhoOd. In S4G,however,the focus is upon honesty about one's
body,knowledge ofit,and a pOsitive sense ofits worth.
These values are emphasized in the book's opening scene,where
we sec Gigi and her daughters bathing together一 a scenario frequcntly
employed by Uchida in order to present the naked female body in a
non― eroticized context. Gigi realizes that she rnust teach her daughters
how to wash their vaginas, both because they have been doing it
irnproperly and becausc her partner,Yaya,had taught her son how to
cican hirnself when he was a little boyo As she demonstrates how to
clean the folds ofthe labia,her oldcr daughter is struck ly the difference
in color bet、 veen her own genitalia and those of her inother,exclairning,
``Wow,they're so dark!''(8) This ObServation leads Gigi to explain￢ ア
hy
her body looks the way it does:``Look,when the inucous lncmbranes get
stronger,they get darker.. 。So when you become an adult,they turn
black"(9)。 HCr daughter thinks about this and asks, “Is it OK for
children's to be skin― colored?" Gigi responds that it is,and she and her
two daughters snuggle in the bath together.
This scene of parentalintimacy,and Gigi's positivc reaction to the
interaction一 “Given that he ncver heard a positivc explanation of a
、
voman's genitals turning dark,I'■ l glad thatl was able to talk aboutit so
well''― 一illustrate Uchida's contention that mothers must give their
daughters positive messages about their bOdy in a dircct and
understanding way. When bathing ttrith their children,mothers should
特別 寄稿論 文
Our Bodies,Myself
be sure to clean the latter's genitals in a mattcr―
of―
fact fashion,using
plain language rather than euphernisms in order to make them
cornfortable and confident about their own sexual organs. As Uchida
notes in an asidc,``When you parents take a negative attitude towards
、
vashing
your child's genitals,or do it unhappily as if thc genitals are
somcthing“ dirty'',you leave your child with negative feelings about scx"
(48). Instead, she suggests, the parent should say,
“Lct's
make your
iinportant parts clean,''reinforcing her point by suggesting that rnothers
ought to bc at least as serious as they are when telling their children to
be gentle with the houschold pet. Failing to do so,Uchida argues,leads
into unpleasant territory:thc lnother,for example,who still bathes her
fourth― grade son and tells hiln,“ Your penis is,o nicc, Mama wants one
too"(50)。 As the narrator bluntly points out,“ People who don't see the
problem here nced only iinagine a father washing his third¨
or
fourth― gradc daughtcr's genitals''(50).
In many ways, then, Uchida's S4G stretches the parameters of
what a sexual education instruction manual should bё or do. As wc
have seen,very little ofit would be much help to a girl who wantё d to
know mOre about thc nuts― and― bolts of sexual intercourse and birth
control. It is possible,of course,that thiS Characteristic siFnply stcms
frorrl an attempt to folloⅥ アgovernment content guidelines,iinposed upon
the author by her editor and/or publisher. I would arguc,however,that
the peculiar form and content of S4G is rnotivated instead by Uchida's
sense of a crisis of sexual self― iinage among」 apanese girls and women in
the t￢ renty― first
century. Much of this concern is rooted in, and
expressed in tcrrns of,Uchida's own upbringing and cxperiences as a
ever,are now understood as
」apanese woman. Thesc experiences,ho、 ア
OtteCt lessons(bOth positive and negative)for UChida's own offspring,
whom she wishes to sparc frorn abuse and degradation一 not only the
explicit and personal mistreatinent she endured, but the relentless
OtteCtifiCation and dirninution of women's sexuality that pervades
n
」apanesc society in gcncral, and makes life― histories like her o、 ア
possible.
In turn,s4G,although it addrcsses the same issucs as her earlier
works,represents a significant changc for Uchida. As bcfore,she still
writes in a uniquely personal and even confessional style,freely sharing
hcr loves,her fears,her enthusiasms,and her pet peeves.Yet after a
carccr spcnt defining herself as a ``transgressive woman'', fearlessly
challenging the social taboos surrounding sex and violence attd
redefining the traditional roles of daughter, mother,and Ⅵrife, Uchida
Shungiku here begins to focus her energics and talents upon somcthing
beyond,if still close to,herself― ―namely,her daughters.Talking about
61
理論編
いま 、 く
育 児〉 を間 う
the past becomes more than an act of sё lf― definition and self― promOti6n;
it is a labor Of10ve,an attempt to explain what was in order to teach hcr
daughters what they should and can become.
S4G thus is ,sex
educatiOn",but in a fuller and rnore complex sensc,combining biology
and biography to teach what it might rnean tO positively understand
oneselfas a yOung woman,a woman Ⅵ′
ho by knowing her body knows her
ア
ア
恥orth,and by knowing her、 、orth can participate freely and confidcntly
in the wOrld around her.
本論考 は、平成
19年 度 科 学 研 究 費 補 助 金
(特 別 研 究 員 奨 励 費
)の 助 成 を
うけ た もの で あ る。
This article was written with generOus support from the JSPS{Japan sOciety for
the Promotion of Science).
62